by Mila McManus, MD
It continues to baffle my mind that, despite what research reveals over and over again, our food industry continues to get away with putting harmful ingredients in our food!
In 2012, we published our article in our newsletter regarding a 2008 study about Splenda, which you can read here. Then last year, we reiterated the harmful effects of all artificial sweeteners, and you can read that here, where we talked about two more studies done in 2008 and 2018 showing the toxicity and harm to our friendly gut bacteria caused by artificial sweeteners.
So here we are, 15 years since the first study, with many more studies under our scientific belt, and still, neither the FDA nor food industry has accepted responsibility for removing these toxic sweeteners from our food. Even WebMD and Cleveland Clinic have acknowledged the serious concerns, as has the FDA.
The most recent study done exposed human blood cells and gut tissue to sucralose. The researchers saw that sucralose caused DNA to break apart, putting people at risk for disease and gut health issues. Equally concerning is how toxic it is in very small amounts, so even one food item eaten once a week with Splenda in it can do considerable harm. The only amount of Sucralose that is safe is NONE.
All this to say, it’s important to take your own responsibility to know what you’re ingesting since the Powers that Be don’t seem to care. Protect your gut from the ravages of Splenda/Sucralose, as well as aspartame, saccharin, neotame, Advantame, and acesulfame potassium-k. All of them are well known to interfere with the normal and healthy activity of the gut, and to cause DNA damage. They are clearly linked to weight gain, obesity, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cancer. And we know that when the gut is not healthy, it is communicating inflammation messages to the brain and the rest of the body.
Eat real food, take a probiotic, and choose stevia, monk fruit, and/or erythritol as better, healthier sweeteners.
Be well!